Tuesday, December 04, 2012

My brother and I have vivid childhood memories of standing out in the cold, snow falling, digging under the snow to find the frozen dirt underneath so that we could fill up paper bags to line the front walk with luminarias. Once we would finally chisel some frozen dirt into our many bags, then it was time to attempt to light the candles. Making sure the candles didn't fall over, that the wind didn't blow them out, that the snow didn't extinguish them...it was always quite a feat.

This was just one of my mom's many traditions. We hated that job. But we loved the luminarias. With the exception of my apartment-dwelling days, I think I've done luminarias in some form at every home I've lived in. Of course now I'm worried about burning my house down, so I don't use real candles anymore (I remember there being burned down bags, but evidently the snow always kept the luminarias from burning any further?). Paper bags have been exchanged for mason jars. Last year it was quart jars (filled partway with epsom salt) which I fastened to sticks with wire and stuck in the ground. Lovely effect, being off the ground and all, but by the end of the winter, a few jars had broken from the freezing and thawing and the salt was frozen to the glass because I just left them out all season, taking the battery-powered candles inside after each use. So I abandoned that this year in favor of a simpler approach....just pint jars with the candle stuck inside, placed on each stair (and I pray that parents hold their kids' hand so they don't kick over the jars). And thankfully, now my kids get the torturous job of bringing them inside after each use. Yay for passing on those jobs to my kids ;)

We've had company for dinner the past couple nights, which is always an opportunity to light our luminarias for someone other than us to enjoy. Something about them always makes me happy.